All right. So if you’re in manufacturing, any type of manufacturing, this is going to be something you definitely want to listen into.
So my name is Jenn. I’m the Director of Sales here at Alliance IT. We’re going to talk a little bit today about some of the struggles and the strategies that manufacturers should be taking in terms of moving towards the next industrial revolution, so Industry 4.0.
If you haven’t been up-to-date yet, Industry 4.0 is all about taking a look at the internet of things so that artificial intelligence and really being able to take advantage of the cloud to store a lot of your data there. But of course anytime you’re taking a look at storing any type of data in the cloud, you want to take a look at how do you do it securely.
So one of the toughest things to realize is that over the past two years, it has been probably the toughest time in technology for anybody because we’ve had so many different breaches, so many different data breaches and ransomware is running rampant right now.
The reason we don’t know the exact amount or what that exact percentage is, is many people don’t even report it. So there are some things that you want to take into account as you are looking at moving towards the cloud regardless of any industry, but more specifically within manufacturing.
The reason that we’re really focusing on manufacturing is for whatever reason, manufacturers don’t realize that they need to have a very secure cloud strategy and it doesn’t just encompass the data that’s being put there. It starts all the way with your frontline folks.
So let’s take a look at a couple of things that you can do to help prepare yourself. So first and foremost, we talked about your frontline employees. They are there to help protect your business more than you think they are. But it’s really important that you – as you built out your security strategy, that you put into play some training, some security training and remember, security training is not a one-and-done event. This is something that should be ongoing and there are partners that we work with that help you to create an ongoing strategy, whether it be videos to do some education and then some actual test emails to see just how smart your team is in knowing what looks like a valid link or not.
So that’s first and foremost. The next one is making sure that you upgrade your infrastructure. Work with a partner that is able to identify really what it is that you need and where are some of the gaps in terms of what you need to take you to the next level. So it’s important to sit down with somebody who you can have a real discussion about what your business strategies are, short term and long term, so we can help to put together a really good plan.
Next, you want to take a look at also retooling your backup, your disaster recovery and your business continuity. If you haven’t taken a look at that, it’s something that you really want to make sure that you build that as a part of your defense mechanism.
The intellectual property that manufacturers have is abundant and many times it is customized for specific end users as well or end customers as well. So really make sure that the backup that you have, that your business continuity plan is in place, that your security strategy is also in place as well.
Those are just a few of the things that you can start taking a look at. But more importantly again, finding that partner, that technology resource that allow you to understand really what you need to do to put the perfect strategic plan in place is going to be of utmost importance for you.
So if you have any questions about it, we would love to talk with you a little bit more about how we can help you start moving towards that next industrial revolution which will help you stay more competitive out there in the field.
So with that, have a great day.
